This has proven to be far more involved than I expected.  I need to change
tack.

Managed to capture and replay commands and thought I was making progress as
the system could be shutdown.  Shutdown operation was my main focus so was
optomistic.

However, it turns out the system was getting angry and appears to initiate
a reset cycle. Once complete the remote control reissues the start command
and the system would restart after about 10mins.

I am now considering interfacing directly to the switch contacts and status
leds.  Not so elegant.

To do everything only 2 switches and 2 LEDS need to be interfaced.

Perhaps an ideal app for an ESP8266.
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